On the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the state-sponsored massacre of Sikhs: Onward with the struggle to punish the guilty of the 1984 genocide! Unite and organize to establish a new state that will ensure prosperity and protection for all!

Call of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 24 October, 2017

On 1st November, 2017, men and women, old and young, people of all religious faiths, communists and other political activists, will march through the streets of Delhi, from the Supreme Court to the Parliament building, to mark the 33rd anniversary of the genocide of Sikhs in 1984.

Through this united action, the people of India are declaring that they are not prepared to forgive or forget the monstrous crime committed 33 years ago. A message is being conveyed to the whole world that the people of India will not give up the fight for justice. We will fight till we have a State that would fulfil its duty of ensuring prosperity and protection for all, guaranteeing that nobody can be attacked for his or her belief.

It cannot and must not be forgotten that the 1984 genocide continued for three whole days and nights in Delhi, Kanpur and many other places in Northern India. Murderous mobs armed with rubber tyres and petrol bombs, led by prominent leaders of the ruling Congress Party, pulled out Sikhs from their homes, from buses and trains, and burnt them alive. Women and girls were raped. Gurudwaras were set on fire.

It must be remembered that for nearly four years prior to this massacre, systematic communal hate propaganda against Sikhs had been carried out by the big capitalist media and by the major parties in the Parliament. Every Sikh was portrayed as an enemy of India, as a dangerous terrorist and a separatist who was out to kill Hindus. The struggle of the people of Punjab for their national rights was deliberately portrayed in communal colours. It was portrayed as a Pakistan-sponsored secessionist movement in order to justify unleashing brutal state terrorism in Punjab.

On 1st November, rumours were spread that Sikhs were distributing sweets to celebrate the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, alleged to have been killed by her Sikh bodyguards. There was even a rumour that Sikhs had poisoned the water supply of Delhi. Politicians of the ruling party were shown on Doordarshan TV repeatedly shouting the chilling war cry: “khoon ka badla khoon!”. Prominent personalities who appealed to the President and the Home Minister to stop the genocide were met with silence. The police stood by and let the attacks take place, or actively assisted the murderous mobs. While the streets of Delhi flowed with the blood of innocent Sikhs, the Supreme Court kept silent. Interim Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi justified the genocide with the words: “When a giant tree falls, the earth shakes!”

During the past 33 years, numerous citizens’ enquiry committees have clearly established the role of the ruling party and the official state machinery in organising the 1984 genocide. On the other hand, as many as 10 official commissions and committees set up by successive governments to probe the 1984 massacre have all whitewashed the role of those in power. The genocide continues to be documented in official records as a “riot”. The principal organisers of this large-scale crime against the Indian people continue to escape conviction and punishment, allegedly for “lack of evidence”. All these together prove that the genocide of Sikhs in November 1984 was an act of state terrorism. The entire state machinery was put into motion to prepare the conditions for this genocide and to carry it out.

The big bourgeoisie which controls the Indian state has developed an elaborate machinery to spread communal poison, divide the people on communal lines, and organise physical attacks targeted at one community at a time, making it appear as if the people are communal and have started a riot against one another.

The genocide of 1984 was followed by the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, accompanied and followed by large-scale communal massacres of Hindus and Muslims in Mumbai and other cities. Then there was the Gujarat genocide in 2002, in which Muslims suffered on a scale similar to what the Sikhs experienced in 1984.

Portraying people of a particular religion as the enemy and unleashing state terrorism against them has become a regular feature of governance in our country. It is the preferred method deployed by the capitalist class, headed by about 150 monopoly houses, to impose its dictate on 120 crore Indians.

The political parties financed by the big bourgeoisie, headed by the Congress and BJP, engage in communal politics to serve the class in power as well as to enhance their own party’s electoral prospects. Such parties compete and contend with one another to control the state machinery and implement the agenda of the big bourgeoisie. They regularly and systematically inflame passions on the basis of religion, caste and ethnic identity so as to break the class unity of workers and peasants and to develop their respective vote banks. In addition to such parties engaged in cut-throat rivalry for votes, the machinery of divide and rule includes many other organisations which systematically spout communal venom against this or that religious community. It also includes various underground armed groups set up by the intelligence agencies. The big bourgeoisie directly funds many of these organisations. Some also receive funds through the State.

We must clearly demarcate between parties which are part of the guilty who must be punished and parties which are part of the united opposition to state terrorism. When people who are targeted on the basis of their religious identity unite to defend themselves and their right to conscience, they cannot be blamed for getting together as a religious group. The victims of state terrorism must not be blamed for communalism. It is the ruling class and its parties, which take turns to wield the state machine, who are responsible for communalism and the recurrence of communal violence.

The source of communalism and communal violence and all forms of state terrorism lies in the exploitative rule of a minority, the capitalist class headed by the monopoly houses. It is this class of exploiters which has preserved and perfected the British colonial state machinery of dividing and ruling over the toiling majority. In order to create a society where people of varied beliefs can live in harmony and the right of every human being will be protected, it is necessary to dethrone the capitalist class and establish the rule of the working class, allied with all the oppressed.

A State which fails to protect its citizens and fails to punish those who organize mass killings has no right to exist. It is therefore the right and duty of the Indian people to get rid of the current State and establish a new State that will guarantee prosperity and protection for all. The Indian people must exercise their right to enact a new fundamental law which will ensure that sovereignty vests in the people and those who violate anybody’s human, democratic or national rights will be promptly convicted and severely punished, no matter how high a position they may hold in society or the State.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon all those fighting against state terrorism, against communalism and communal violence, to wage the struggle with the revolutionary perspective of establishing a State that fulfils its duty of ensuring prosperity and protection for all.

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PARTY DOCUMENTS

The first part of this pamphlet is an analysis of facts and phenomena to identify and expose the real aims behind the Note Ban. The second part is devoted to a critical appraisal of the government’s claims that it will reduce inequality, corruption and terrorism. The third part is what Communist Ghadar Party believes is the real solution to these problems and the immediate program of action towards that solution.

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